Heading Back To Hogwarts
by Serpent In Red
Summary: Oneshot. Has a little of DHr. Focuses more on Draco and Hermione. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Pansy, Ginny, and Draco are heading back to Hogwarts, not for lessons though. Why are they going there? What's happening in Hogwarts? Who else do they see there?


**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything from Harry Potter. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

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**A/N**: This was actually posted in 2005. I've just decided to repost it under this account because I want to delete the other account.

It was not really betaed and…I didn't really go back to fix all the errors so…read at your own risk. XD

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**Heading Back To Hogwarts**

"_Lumos_," a male's whisper echoed through the night air of Hogsmeade as six figures gathered around the corner of Madame Rosmerta's store.

"Brilliant. You suppose that they would not see us with your wand's light?" another male's voice whispered with a hint of disgust in his voice.

"Be quiet! They'll hear you before they see the light of Harry's wand," a female's voice. The male did not answer but a small smirk appeared on his face.

"How are we going to get back into Hogwarts?" yet a third male's voice whispered.

"We'll have to get in there through the Shrieking Shack," the first male's voice - Harry's voice - said.

"The Shrieking Shack?" another female's voice squealed.

"Be quiet, Pansy!" the second male's voice said.

"But...that place is haunted," Pansy whispered, slightly scared at the thought of going into a haunted house.

"It's not haunted," Harry answered. "It's...that's another story. We have to go into Hogwarts and find Gryffindor's sword before the Death Eaters do."

It was suppose to be the winter of their seventh year. Due to the fact that Dumbledore was now dead and a number of the professors had been out, defending the weak against the Death Eaters, Hogwarts had decided to stay closed until further notice. The Death Eaters had not yet been able to get through the many protections of Hogwarts to get what they wanted with Hogwarts but nevertheless, going there at a time like this was like putting him or herself in front of a group of Death Eaters. The advice for protections for wizard families had increased itself tenfold over the last few months.

During these few months, Blaise, Pansy, and Draco had finally decided to join the Order to fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Not many people from the Order had believed in their intentions but still, some believed that they could be given a chance.

Tonight, Harry, along with Hermione, Ron, Pansy, Ginny, and Draco were on a mission to get into Hogwarts to find Gryffindor's sword. The other members of the Order were on other missions so they had to accomplish it alone.

"Where does the Shrieking Shack lead up to?" Draco asked as he looked at Harry with a frightened look on his face.

"Are you scared, Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding me, Potter?" Draco huffed. "Let's go then. What are we waiting for?"

"Trust him to make rash decisions when he's scared," Harry muttered as he, along with the others, followed Draco's footsteps toward the Shrieking Shack.

* * *

After a short but eventful journey (with Ron suddenly jumping on Draco making the latter screaming like a banshee) from the Shrieking Shack to the Whomping Willow, they were finally standing in front of Hogwarts.

"There's no Death Eaters in there, are there?" Pansy gulped. Other than Harry, Blaise, Pansy, and Draco were definitely on Voldemort's number one to-kill list.

"Even if there are, we have to go in there," Harry said firmly.

"I know that," Pansy said. "I just wanted to make sure." Harry sighed.

"Well, let's go in then," Hermione said as she eyed the castle carefully as if scouring for hidden Death Eaters.

"Alright then," Ron said with a nervous nod of his head.

"Ron! Don't tell me that you're scared as well," Hermione said helplessly. "If anything, Draco and Pansy should be more scared than you are."

"It's just what they did to the Jordans last week. Did you see how devastated Lee was? They'd mutilated his parents..." Ron said.

"I know that," Hermione said with a frown. "But we still have to go in there."

"Shush," Harry said. They all turned around and looked in the direction he was looking at. It was a figure that Harry had known to well. He would remember that person even if that person had turned to ashes. Peter Pettigrew. Finally, the figure disappeared behind the doors.

"How did he-" Draco was about to ask but Harry cut him off.

"Let's go," Harry said, anger burning in his eyes.

"But who is that?" Pansy asked. "How did he go in there? The Order members had already casted spells and enchantments over the castle, hasn't they?"

"Let's go," Harry repeated himself. The other people looked at him and knew better than to contradict him.

* * *

"Where did he go?" Ron asked Hermione.

"Shh," Hermione said as she placed a finger to her lips. At this moment, they saw a shadow going towards the right of the intersection in front of them.

"Who-" Harry held up his hand.

"We need to split up now," he said. Hermione nodded.

"You go look for the sword with Ginny and Pansy. I'll go after Pettigrew with Draco and Ron," Hermione said. Harry nodded.

With that, the group of six went their ways.

"How did he get in here?" Draco whispered to the other two as they walked down the familiar corridors carefully looking at the Marauder's map that Harry had borrowed them. Pettigrew was traveling not too far in front of them, going towards the dungeons.

Hermione shook her head, indicating that she did not know.

"Finally something that the know-it-all doesn't know, huh?" Draco whispered with a smirk on his face. Hermione glared at him and returned her gaze to the map.

"He's going to the Potions' classroom it seems like," Hermione said.

"Nothing to answer to that, Granger?" Draco taunted further.

"Shut up, ferret. We're following someone. He might hear you," Ron glared at him.

"Pettigrew will hear you before he hears me, Weasley," Draco said as he raised an eyebrow at him. Ron's face turned red, knowing that Draco was right - he had forgotten to lower his voice down.

"Will you two stop the bickering already?" Hermione asked. Suddenly, the motion in the map made Hermione widened her eyes. "He's walking backwards. We have to hide somewhere."

At the moment, they split up in two directions out of the frenzy - Ron into the classroom and Draco and Hermione into the broom closet. It was a rather unfortunate situation as the broom closet was the smaller compartment of the two.

"Did he pass this place yet?" Draco whispered into Hermione's ears, causing tingles to go down her neck. She glanced at the map in her hands.

"Not yet. He's a few yards from this place though. We might have to keep it down a little," Hermione answered.

"Keep what down a little?" Draco asked as he looked at her rather mischievously.

"Oh shut up," Hermione said as she rolled her eyes at him. He smiled at her and turned his attention back to listening for any sounds outside of the broom closet.

"Hopefully, Weasel King would be smart enough to keep it down when Pettigrew gets near," Draco said with a smirk. Hermione looked at him with a glare. Draco looked down at her. Suddenly, Hermione realized that their lips were a little too close for her comfort and turned her head away.

At this moment, there was scream that erupted from outside of the closet. Before Hermione could call out Ron's name, Draco covered her mouth with his hands.

"So...you're a Weasley," a man's voice was heard. "Do you think that there are others in here then?"

"There's bound to be. They wouldn't let a buffoon like him come in here by himself, would they? He'll just mess everything up. No. I'm guessing that the Potter boy is in here as well," another voice said. Hermione glanced at Draco, struggling furiously to loosen his grip on her mouth but on the contrary, he tightened his grip around her.

"Let's go find them then," the first voice said.

"What are we to do with this Weasley then?" the second one asked.

"Kill him. He's no use to us anyway. And just imagine the look on Potter's face when he sees his best friend dead." There was a mad cackle of laughter outside as Hermione listened in horror as the fateful words took away the life of a dear friend of hers.

Draco could feel a burning on his hand that was covering Hermione's mouth from the two streams of tears from the maiden as the Death Eaters outside lifted their wands and pointed to the red-headed boy outside.

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

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A few moments later, when he was finally sure that there were no more Death Eaters lurking outside, Draco let his hand drop from Hermione's mouth. Hermione fumbled with the doorknob and when she finally opened the door, she saw the body of the boy who was a friend- a boy she had loved- a boy who had loved her-

"Ron..." she whispered as she knelt down in front of his body, tears pouring out of her eyes. Draco was looking around to see if there were anymore Death Eaters in hiding.

"We must get to Potter now," Draco said quietly.

"No," Hermione said stubbornly as she stroked Ron's face gently all the while crying silently to herself.

"We must. He must know that there are Death Eaters in the castle."

"Who knows if you are in this with them?" Hermione lashed out at him. A hurt expression appeared on Draco's face but he quickly composed himself.

"If you want to think like that, then go on ahead. Maybe I am part of them. I've hated Weasley enough for him to die," Draco said venomously.

"You-"

"Now if you want _Potty _to die as well, go on moping there like Moaning Myrtle," Draco said as he looked at her coldly. Hermione turned at him and shot daggers with her eyes at him. "Do you want to save Potter or not? If not, then go on. Cry and bawl over Weasley's body as much as you want. For all I know, he's _dead _already and Potter's, at least, still alive and the Death Eaters will be extremely happy to get their hands on him. And Pansy and Weaselette."

As much as Hermione wanted to contradict him, she knew that he was right.

And with that, she set off towards the Headmaster's Office with Draco.

She hoped that all was not too late yet.

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End file.
